On Friday and Saturday, May 2-3, Cal State L.A. will host a free scholarly and literary forum spotlighting the work of Chicano writer Rudolfo Anaya. Twelve keynote and featured speakers will deliver papers on Anaya’s literary work that spans more than 40 years. The 2014 Conference on Rudolfo Anaya: Tradition, Modernity, and the Literatures of the U.S. Southwest will feature scholars representing Asia, Germany, Mexico and the United States, including two plenary sessions on topics ranging from Rudolfo Anaya’s novels to Mesoamerica and the U.S. Southwest.

The conference opens at the Golden Eagle Ballroom on Friday, May 2, at 8:30 a.m. with hospitality coffee and pastry, and with lectures by Anaya scholars Enrique Lamadrid (University of New Mexico), Horst Tonn (University of Tübingen, Germany), Francisco Lomelí (UC Santa Barbara), and Chicana novelists Ana Castillo and Reyna Grande, followed by a featured lecture titled “Anaya’s Historical Memory” by Rosaura Sánchez (UC San Diego). Dinner is scheduled for 7:30-9:00 p.m. with the performance of Cal State L.A.’s Mariachi “Aguila de Oro.” The luncheon will feature music by Vicko Cortés, singer and guitarist of the Latino group “Cumbia Brava.”

The Saturday program will run from 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m. with lectures by Chicano novelist Mario Acevedo, Mesoamerican scholar John Pohl (UCLA), and Anaya scholars José Limón (University of Notre Dame), Monika Kaup (University of Washington), and María Herrera-Sobek (UC Santa Barbara), followed by the keynote lecture from 6:00-7:15 p.m. by Ramón A. Gutiérrez (University of Chicago), entitled “The Spell of New Mexico: The Lies of the Land.” A dinner banquet closes the conference at the Golden Eagle Ballroom until 9:00 p.m. (The cost of the luncheons is $15, $20 for dinners.)

This conference is sponsored by Cal State L.A.’s Gigi Gaucher-Morales Memorial Conference Series, the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Natural and Social Sciences, the Department of Chicano Studies, the Department of English, the Barry Munitz Fund, and the CSULA Emeriti Association.